Trunk Of Funk Vol 1

GRAND FUNK RAILROAD

Description

Label Review.

First six albums. On Time (1969) Grand Funk (1969) Closer To Home (1970) Live Album (1970) Survival (1971) E Pluribus Funk (1972). All discs have bonus tracks.

Our Overview.

Named after a play on the Grand Trunk Western Railroad that ran through their hometown of Flint, Michigan, USA and formed in 1969 with the combined talents of Mark Farner & Don Brewer (both Terry Knight & The Pack - Terry became the bands producer) and Mel Schacher (Question Mark & The Mysterions), Grand Funk Railroad became one of the most popular hard rock trios in the US during the first half of the 1970s despite critical displeasure and a lack of airplay.

Apart from a Greatest Hits package, their catalogue has generally only been available on import in the UK. However, with their Capitol Records period now under the jurisdiction of Universal Music, their mighty and long deleted 2002 box set ‘Trunk Of Funk’ has been reissued in two, affordable parts.

The six albums in this set cover their early years 1969-1972 where the productive trio thumped out five studio and one live album. The bands second eponymous album have the group their commercial breakthrough but lack of airplay meant they had trouble scoring big hits. Their best known track from this time was ‘I’m Your Captain (Closer To Home) which almost made the US Top 20.

They became a big live draw though and their ‘Live Album’ (1970) turned out to be one of their biggest sellers. After two more studio albums they band fell out with their producer Terry Knight sought out more control over their career which is detailed in the second box set available here.